Party Support Revisited

[Tachyon]

Some of you may remember one of my first posts regarding Party support and a bonus they gave me that affected a transfer I received to cash out on behalf of a friend. I got mixed responses back then... some saying I was wrong and a few saying otherwise. Bearing this issue in mind I sent them the following email today:

---
Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2004 8:31 AM
To: 'info@partypoker.com'
Subject: Query

Hello,

The following pending bonus:

Purchase-JUNCASHOUT-3 * 20.0 * 2004-06-23 06:21:22.0 * 2004-06-28 23:59:59.0 * 120 * 17 * Bonus Pending

Should already have expired and be removed from my account.

The fact that it has not been removed is preventing me from making a further deposit into my account as you will remove $20 as soon as you realise your error.

Please rectify and remove the remaining $1.75 from my account asap.

Regards,
---

The response I received quite frankly was beyond belief:

Thank you for contacting us.

With regards to your e-mail we would like to inform that: $20.00 JUNCASHOUT-3 is a cashout bonus and if the remaining 103 raked hands are not played before 28-JUN-2004 23:59 the system will collect the bonus amount from your next deposit account.

Because this bonus is issued and checked by the system we donýt have a manual check on it therefore we request you to play the remaining raked hands.

The Cashout Restricted bonus is a bonus that gets credited directly to your account. Once the bonus has been credited to your account, you will have to play the required number of hands in order to receive the bonus. Please keep in mind that there is an expiration date for all Cashout Restricted bonuses.

If you fail to complete the required number of hands by the expiration date, then that bonus amount will be taken out of the bonus account in the cashier.



If you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Care Department at any time. We are here 24/7 to assist you via email.

Thank you for choosing us as your online gaming site!

Haritha
Poker Customer Care
---

Once again they do not read the email that is sent to them, and clearly have no idea about what their canned response means.

[img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

John

[Tachyon]

After my rather... heated... reply to support I received the following:

As per the new rules, if your account balance is less than $10, then your cash out restricted bonus will not be removed from your account after the expiration period.

If you had made a deposit before the expiration date then all the restriction on the bonuses are removed and you would have been able to cash out the bonus without playing the raked hands. If you do not make a deposit before the expiration date and also fail to play the required raked hands, the system will remove the exact amount of bonus from your account from your next deposit as you have not played the required raked hands.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Care Department at any time. We are here 24/7 to assist you via email.

Thank you for choosing us as your online gaming site!

Shonali
Poker Customer Care

So once again I replied:

I'm sorry I read through the Terms and conditions and no where does it state the BS you just spouted at me:
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Dear Tachyon,

Congratulations! You have been awarded a bonus amount of $20.00 and the money has been added into your account. You are free to use this bonus amount to play at PartyPoker.com. However, if you wish to cashout the $20.00, you will need to play 120 raked hands before 28-JUN-04 23:59 EST .

If you fail to do so, we will be forced to claim it back from your account. For more details and disclaimer, click here
---
http://secure.partypoker.com/offers/...estriction.htm
---
“CashOut Restricted” bonus means that the bonus amount is deposited in your real money account. You may play on the real money tables with this bonus BUT you cannot cash it out until you have played the required number of “Raked Hand” with in the Bonus Validity Period."


There is no where on this URL that states that the bonus will not be removed unless there is at least $10 to reclaim. I would not have used the funds if this had been the case.

Are you just making things up as you go along? Are you really trying to tell me that this "bonus" will be hanging over my account for the rest of time? I deposit into my account again and you will INSTANTLY remove the $20 bonus - because if so then I have played my last hand at Party Poker.

You also make no apology for the completely erroneous email that I received first time round - your "customer service" is a complete joke.
-----

Sheesh all this because I actually want to make a deposit and play without making the same mistake as 1st time round....

Am I being a jerk again?

John

[Tachyon]

Dear Tachyon,

Please note that when you received the $20 CashOut restricted bonus, you were required to play 120 raked hands by 28-JUN-04 23:59 EST. However, you have not met the raked hands requirement within the time allotted, therefore the bonus amount has been deducted from your account.

Date: 30-JUN-04 00:00:05 EST.

Beginning balance: $1.75

Amount Deducted: $1.75

Ending balance: $0
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Again no appology, but ... grr ... ok it's all sorted now...

John

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

So let me get this straight:

1) you got a $20 bonus requiring you to play 120 hands to clear
2) you didn't play 120 hands (how could you not even play 120 hands?) and cashed out most of your money (all but $1.75), including the $20 bonus
3) the expiration date has passed without you playing the required number of hands and Party is taking their $20 back
4) you want your free money to remain free, but Party expects you to live up to the original agreement


If this is the case and I'm not missing something (I must be), then:

1) That's hell
2) Grow up

[Dav123]

I have some experience with this and can feel your frustration. This is how I now deal with them:

1) I never email them. As you saw 1st hand, this is an extraordinary waste of time.

2) I call them, give them my account info, and immediately ask for the highest level manager available. This may work better for me than for some as I pay over $4000/month in rake.

3) At this point, I get someone whose English I can comprehend and who has the ability make changes to my account. I tell this person exactly what I want with a VERY brief explanation as to why I am entitled to it. Although I am 98% sure this person has never understood why I felt I deserved the refund I was asking for, they gave it to me immediately (2 calls, 2 successes, $131 total, 10 min total time).

I hope this helps.

[teddyFBI]

They have a support phone number?? What is it? I can't find it on their site -- it always just tells me to email them.

Also, they're supposed to have a live online chat feature, but every time I go to it, it says "this feature is unavailable".

[Tachyon]

1) I played 17 hands won 3.75 then tried out a 3 table SnG - no good.

2) My bonus "expired" 28th June - but this time they did not remove the bonus

3) I wanted to make a new deposit without instantly losing $20

There was no cashout. Never said there was if you read my initial thread.

My issue was with the bonus not "expiring" as stated...

Hope that clears things up...

John

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

[ QUOTE ]
3) I wanted to make a new deposit without instantly losing $20

[/ QUOTE ]
So did you ever get $20 from them in the first place? If you did and you didn't fulfill the requirements, I think you're in the wrong not expecting to give the $20 back. If you never got the $20 bonus from them to begin with, then I can see your problem. I suspect it's the former.

Regardless, I guess you need to ask yourself whether you value ever playing at Party again at more or less than a one-time $20.

[Tachyon]

Yes I did receive a free $20 as have many others.

The requirements are as follows:
[ QUOTE ]

Congratulations! You have been awarded a bonus amount of $20.00 and the money has been added into your account. You are free to use this bonus amount to play at PartyPoker.com. However, if you wish to cashout the $20.00, you will need to play 120 raked hands before 28-JUN-04 23:59 EST .

If you fail to do so, we will be forced to claim it back from your account. For more details and disclaimer, click here.

For those that cannot be bothered to click the link:

“CashOut Restricted” bonus means that the bonus amount is deposited in your real money account. You may play on the real money tables with this bonus BUT you cannot cash it out until you have played the required number of “Raked Hand” with in the Bonus Validity Period.



[/ QUOTE ]

So the deal is at the end of the period they will attempt to take back $20 or whatever remains whichever is the greater.

My issue was that they:

1) Did not reclaim at the end of the stated period
2) Tried to suggest that the $20 would be hanging over my account for all time with a non-existant "new policy".
3) Again completely misunderstood my email and replied with something that did not have anything to do with my initial response
4) Did not appologise for any of the above

Last time my issue was that after losing a free $30 that they gave me, I tried to do a friend a favor by cashing out a transfer to give the real money from my NETeller Debit Card withdrawal, however they tried to make me play the raked hands as I was still in the bonus period - I can understand that from some angles I was in the wrong that time, but this time I feel that I am definitely in the right on every count.

In any case they have now cancelled the "expired" bonus so someone who can read english must have received my 3rd email.

Just a warning to you all out there that you may be trapped into a "negative" balance even though you read all the fine print....

Integrity is one of Party's strong points, which is why I rarely play there.

John

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

I don't mean to be a dick, but I still just have one question that you won't answer. Did you get $20 from them with the understanding that you would play 120 raked hands?